Pack of Cards

By Madame Sosostris

Darlings, you will never believe how small this world is. Two weeks ago, my dear colleague Niveen Wahish wrote an article for the Living Page, describing some of the difficulties encountered in mixed marriages. We needed a beautiful picture to illustrate the article, and yours truly was asked to mak pictures. We pored olieve it, darlings? The daughter of this charming couple recognised her parents and wondered, quite rightly, what they were doing on the pages of the Weekly.

In our mind, they we have construed the relationship of the photo to the article in that sense, we apologise. The happy couple was thoroughly Egyptian, and only chosen over many others because they both looked so handsome and happy.

Esmat Abdel-Meguid; Prince Al-Waleed

Clockwise from top:; Fady Raouf Badie; Yasmeen Guindy; Zewail photos: Salah Ibrahim, Youssri Aql and Mohamed Fahmi

Graduation, my from one of the city's finest private institutions, and every year we witness the tears of joy and sadness, laughs of trepidation and pride. Not just from the students themselves, but from their families and friends, mentors and peers.

This year was slightly exceptional, especially for the Al-Ahram Weekly family. Yasmeen Guindy, daughter of our cherished Editor-in-Chief Hosny Guindy, was among those collecting their BAs in Journalism and Mass Communications. Yasmeen, who specialised in marketing, graduated Cum Laude. Everyone at the Weekly congratulates her wholeheartedly. Other special graduates known to the paper are also in our thoughts: Rafik Riad, Dina Effat, and Fady Raouf Badie, class valedictorian.

Beside him, receiving honorary doctorates, were distinguished guests HRH Prince Al Waleed Bin Talal Bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud, and Esmat Abdel-Meguid, former secretary-general of the League of Arab States. The doctorate marks another addition to Abdel-Meguid's numerous honours and awards, which include the Grande Croix from France, Docteur Honoris Causa from the Catholic University of Louvain, and Grand Cordon of the Nile from President Hosni Mubarak.

At a younger level of excellence, a handful of outstanding students were recognised too. For the President's Cup -- awarded to the student achieving the highest grade point average -- were Mariam Fathi Selim, Mima Essam Arif and Sherif Wagdy. The Parents' Association Cup -- awarded to the most active student in all arenas, academic and extracurricular, went to Ibrahim El-Ibiary. Family-named awards included the Ahmed Zewail Prize for Excellence in the Sciences, and the Ahmed El-Mehallawi Family Award. They went to Yasmine Abdel- Razek, and Sarah Essam Ismaily and Yasmine Helal Hamed, respectively.

It was yet another joyously rowdy occasion for the university. As the students say their good-byes, they enter an AUC world of another form: joining a family of AUC alumni around the world.

A part of that family gathered during commencement week at the annual Chairman's Dinner, hosted by Chairman of the AUC board Paul Hannon. Over 500 guests attended, including Governor of Cairo Abdel-Rehim Shihata and Mrs Shihata, and Dr Nadia Makram Ebeid, former minister of environment.

Much as at the commencement, the guests took time to honour their alumni peers for the achievements over the years. Those honoured: In'am Mufti, former minister of social development, Jordan; Youssef Ibrahim, vice-president at BP Amoco, US; Antranig Sarkissian, vice- president of Citibank, New York; Isis Kelada El-Mallakh, Alexandria; Charles Onyango-Obbo, editor-in-chief of The Monitor, Uganda's daily paper.

It was a week abundant with ceremony. But as AUC said farewell to the young graduates, it was also sad to bid adieu to one of its most cherished faculty: former department chair Doris Shoukri. Her many years of popular presence in the English and Comparative Literature Department will be missed.

As the celebrations reached their close, and the final good-byes were said, two people stood slightly behind the commotion. AUC's Nagwa Shoeb and Mary Iskander, director of public relations and director of alumni relations respectively, watched from a slight distance. The backbone behind AUC events, they sat back, not quite relaxed. The next AUC event, after all, is just around the corner.